


Free at last

by Red_House



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Crying Levi (Shingeki no Kyojin), Feels, Fluff and Angst, Gen, Levi (Shingeki no Kyojin) is a Softie, Light Angst, Not Beta Read, Sad, Sorry Not Sorry
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-11
Updated: 2016-11-11
Packaged: 2018-08-30 08:18:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 888
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8525638
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Red_House/pseuds/Red_House
Summary: In all honesty, he isn’t sure how he ended up here.At least it isn’t as painful now as it was a minute ago.Taking a deep shaky breath, Levi knows he’s dying.





	

In all honesty, he isn’t sure how he ended up here. At least it isn’t as painful now as it was a minute ago. Taking a deep shaky breath, Levi knows he’s dying. Even with medical attention, his wounds are too severe to heal. 

He hears someone calling out to him, he just can’t figure out who at the moment. The voice, he realizes, is more than one voice. All of them are calling out to him. A face comes into his line of sight. Hanji is crying. They say something but he can’t seem to understand at first. Slowly, the words become clearer.

“Levi! Can you hear me! Oh god, what happened to you? Everyone's here, we completed the mission. Just don’t die on me, ok?”

Blinking languidly, Levi turns his head a bit to the right. Everyone is there and they are all looking at him with shock and sadness in their eyes. Trying to form words Levi opens his mouth and rasps,

“Keep headquarters clean while I’m gone.”

He can’t quite tell but he thinks someone actually smiles at his comment. Taking another deep raspy breath, Levi turns his head back toward the sky. It’s overcast today, the clouds are dark it looks like it will rain. Sighing quietly, he resigns himself to death. 

“Why aren’t we doing something to help him?” 

Eren, always Eren. Headstrong and vaguely oblivious or maybe just optimistic, either way, there is nothing anyone can do to save him now. 

“We can’t just stand here and do nothing! Why are you just standing there?”

No one responds. A gentle sprinkling of water begins to fall. Finally, Hanji speaks up. 

“Eren, there is nothing we can do, we got here too late.”

“No! You’re wrong, we can still save him, his heart is still beating!”

Breathing in again Levi closes his eyes.

“Eren, I am dying. Nothing you do will save me now. Even if you had arrived earlier you couldn’t have saved me. The wound is deeper than it looks. The chances of me surviving were slim from the start. I am going to die and you can’t save me. Whatever you do Eren, just don’t regret this. I am ready to die, so please just let me.”

“I...we...humanity still needs you...don’t go.”

Levi is vaguely aware that not all of the water droplets hitting his face are raindrops. Peeling his eyes open, Levi lifts his hand and presses his bloody palm to Eren’s cheek. 

“You need to let me go. If you only focus on this, you will get yourself killed. Let me go, Eren.”

Staring down at him with tears in his eyes, Eren grabs Levi’s hand and holds it for a moment. Levi watches as, after a moment of hesitation, Eren places his hand and Levi’s onto Levi’s sluggishly beating heart. Then Eren let’s go. Breathing in deeply again Levi relaxes feeling himself beginning to slip away. Moments before he dies, Levi sees Eren salute him. Closing his eyes one final time, Levi breathes out. 

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The sound of water draws him slowly to consciousness. High pitch cawing? He furrows his brow in confusion just moments ago, Levi was lying in the grass dying with Hanji and Eren and everyone else. 

Opening his eyes he sees clear, blue skies above him. A pair of birds fly overhead. Sitting up slowly, Levi feels genuinely shocked. In front of him stretches a vast body of water clear and blue like the sky, but he sees fish swimming through the shallow water. The Ocean. He remembers Armin talk about seeing the ocean with Eren occasionally. He hopes Armin does get to see the ocean at least once someday. It’s much larger than Armin described. 

Another sound draws Levi out of his thoughts. Two pairs of footsteps draw his attention to the treeline a few meters away. Then he hears them speaking. His throat constricts. He knows that voice. Standing Levi quickly runs after the sounds in the trees. It doesn’t take him long to find the source of the sounds. 

Isabel stands there smiling at Furlan they are both laughing at something. He stops dead in his tracks. When he tries to speak, his voice doesn’t work. Then they notice him. Isabel looks so excited but it is Furlan who speaks first. 

“You finally made it, there are some many things you need see!” 

Before he can respond he feels a hand rest on his shoulder. Erwin smiles down at him, warm and friendly, relaxed. 

“Hello again, Levi.”

From behind Erwin, more people appear. First Gunther, then Eld, Oulo and finally Petra. He doesn’t realize he crying until someone wipes away his tears. Then he is pulled into a hug. First Erwin then Isabel and Furlan and then by his squad. He opens his mouth to tell them he doesn’t need to be coddled, only a sob comes out. 

If everyone wasn’t holding him, he would have fallen to his knees. Instead, he just cries into Erwin's shirt, uncaring about anything else at the moment. He needs this. After a few moments or maybe even minutes and he feels someone grab his hand.

“Come on, Levi-bro, let’s go explore.” 

Squeezing Isabel’s hand tighter Levi for the first time in a while smiles, just a bit.

“Alright, Let’s go.”


End file.
